In the media industry, solutions for addressing specific asset management needs are now converging to in an effort to provide a global solution for Media Asset Management (MAM) with different levels of workflow management support. These solutions include:
Playout Automation Systems
Present day playout automation techniques provide real time control of devices that playout video and audio Content according a schedule. Some playout techniques address the need to organize movement of Content at the receiving or ingest server and at the storage phase. The providers of playout devices have demonstrated an expertise in device interfaces, but are still evolving to support workflow engines. Currently, playout automation solutions propose static workflows that need significant rework at the configuration stage.
2) Document Asset Management:
Providers of document Asset management have served the print media and have demonstrated strength in managing documents. Many such providers have evolved into the multimedia environment to tackle the media industry. Typically, these providers lack expertise in real time device resource management and their automation solutions afford only limited ways to manage workflow.
3) Video Editing Systems
There exist several providers of video editing systems, at least one of which has introduced a non linear workflow solution for the media industry which only serves to manage workflow in a static way (i.e., not dynamic).
4) IT Middleware Suppliers:
Providers of IT Middleware typically offer specialized business layer applications and associated infrastructure to manage a transactional layer to handle workflows. In practice, such suppliers focus on business layers so their solutions do not provide a user interface and cannot control resources with load balancing or quality of services constraints.